Band:	Sun Devoured Earth
Album:	Apathy And Hopelessness
Style:	Post-Rock, Shoegaze, Atmospheric black metal
Release date:	April 23, 2011
A review by:	KwonVerge

01. Alone, Alone, Alone
02. The Worst Is Yet To Come
03. More Pressure
04. Pain Is An Illusion
05. Broken
06. Birth And Death
07. Grief And Loss
08. No Colours Anymore

Some say art can ease the burden of the artist. Well, Vadim Vasilyev's pain must be so immense he simply can't stop unleashing albums and/or EPs! Apathy And Hopelessness, the title says it all and the black & white horrid and devastating cover concurs.

This time the most important factors have to be the showgaze/post-punk part of Sun Devoured Earth's sound, blending with ambient touches and a slight black metal mist fading. More structured compositions set tighter foundations and the rest has to deal with the ambiance and the inspiration. Hallucinating keyboards, complimenting and gentle rhythm section, fragile guitar melodies and apathetic but filled with emotion at the same time clean singing complete the scenery.

There's something about The Cure's post-Pornography internal mellow moments going on in here, blending with an obscure sense of decay slowly unfurling. There's something coming straight from Interpol's darkest tunes as well (Joy Division etc), Clan Of Xymox's early era and a shoegaze vibe that cleanses a bit the burden and makes the soundscape slightly brighter. The echoing sounds and the more surrounding production evoke a feeling as if you're losing yourself somewhere between your torn conscious world and an unknown subconscious net. Either way you're trapped, even the titles play tricks on your mind. You're "Broken", you feel "More Pressure" as time passes by, you've experienced "Birth And Death", you've felt "Grief And Loss", "The Worst Is Yet To Come" until you've reached the assumption that "Pain Is An Illusion", but there are "No Colours Anymore" and you're left all "Alone, Alone, Alone".

Once again, a mood album (EP to be more precise), but more structured as stated above, it possesses a clinical beauty of mentally deranged sweetness and devouring bitterness/melancholy. Apathy And Hopelessness, there's always hope at the end of the tunnel? Hah.